Kiyotaki Kawaguchi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kiyotaki Kawaguchi | |
|---|---|
| December 3, 1892 - May 16, 1961 | |
 Japanese Major General Kiyotaki Kawaguchi (center) with friends in an undated photograph. |
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| Place of birth | Kochi prefecture, Japan |
| Allegiance | Imperial Japanese Army |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | World War II *Second Sino-Japanese War *Battle of the Philippines (1941-42) *Guadalcanal campaign *Battle of Edson's Ridge |
Kiyotaki Kawaguchi, also known as Kiyotake Kawaguchi (川口清健), December 3, 1892 - May 16, 1961, was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. Kawaguchi graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in 1914, and from Army Staff College in 1922, spending much of the 1920s and 30s in a series of staff positions in both Japan and China before his promotion to major general in 1940.
Appointed commander of the 35th Infantry Brigade, Kawaguchi arrived at Borneo in December 1941 and, during the later stages of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, landed at Cebu on March 1942 and Mindanao the following month. As commander of Army forces on Cebu after the invasion of the Philippines in 1942, Kawaguchi objected to the "revenge killings" of senior Philippine government officials and supreme court justices by Japanese authorities, most notably Japanese Army Colonel Masanobu Tsuji. He argued that, "shooting defeated opponents in cold blood was a violation of the true Bushido."[1]
Kawaguchi and the 35th Infantry Brigade, along with other attached units, were landed on Guadalcanal in August and September, 1942 in response to the Allied landings on the island. In the resulting Battle of Edson's Ridge on September 13, 1942, Kawaguchi's forces were defeated with heavy losses and forced to retreat from the battlefield. Kawaguchi was subsequently relieved of command during the Japanese preparations for another attack in October, 1942 and evacuated from the island.
After recovering from illness, he was placed in command of the defenses of Tsushima Island in March, 1945. After the war he was convicted of war crimes and was imprisoned from 1946 until 1953.[2] Kawaguchi died in Japan in 1961.
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[edit] References
[edit] Books
- Frank, Richard (1990). Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-58875-4.
- Fuller, Richard (1992). Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 1854091514.
- Harries, Meirion; Susie Harries (1994). Soldiers of the Sun : The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-75303-6.
- Hayashi, Saburo (1959). Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Marine Corps. Association. ASIN B000ID3YRK.
- Smith, Michael T. (2000). Bloody Ridge: The Battle That Saved Guadalcanal. New York: Pocket. ISBN 0-7434-6321-8.
[edit] Web
- Geocities. Major-General Kiyotake Kawaguchi. Retrieved on March 19, 2006.
- Hough, Frank O.; Ludwig, Verle E., and Shaw, Henry I., Jr.. Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. Retrieved on May 16, 2006.
- Shaw, Henry I. (1992). First Offensive: The Marine Campaign For Guadalcanal. Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.
- Zimmerman, John L. (1949). The Guadalcanal Campaign. Marines in World War II Historical Monograph. Retrieved on July 4, 2006.
